Privacy Policy

Eckankar has a firm commitment to your privacy. You can visit our Web sites (e.g., www.Eckankar.org or www.ECKBooks.org) without telling us who you are or sharing any personal information. We do have some Web pages where you have the option to provide the personal information necessary to place an order for spiritual materials. The following questions and answers explain when and how personal information is collected and used.

What kind of information do you collect?

We do not collect your personal information unless it is necessary for providing items, services, or information to you at your request. We collect the following kinds of information:

Nonpersonal information

Like all Web servers, Eckankar’s Web server automatically creates access logs for every visit to our site. Access logs do not record your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, credit-card numbers, or any other personally identifying information. Access logs include the time of your visit, the browser you are using, the IP address of the computer you visit from, and the Web page you came from. We use software to analyze these logs internally to help us improve the user experience on our Web site.

How do you protect my personal information?

The information collected when you submit a Web form to us is encrypted, downloaded, and removed from our Web server. We do not store any personal information on our Web server longer than it takes to download your request for processing by the Eckankar Spiritual Center (ESC).

How do you protect my credit-card information?

At this time, this is being done differently on each of our sites:

At www.Eckankar.org: credit-card information is protected against unauthorized use by a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security certificate. SSL scrambles your credit-card information so that only your Web browser, our Web site’s server, and the ESC staff that processes your request can decipher it. When you submit a Web form, we apply encryption to all information collected.

At www.ECKBooks.org: when you place an order for books and study materials, the transaction is done in SSL. Your payment is authorized through a secure payment gateway provided by Authorize.Net (go to www.authorize.net to view their privacy policy). Your credit-card information is encrypted and transmitted securely through this gateway to the financial institutions involved in online credit-card processing. It is never stored on our Web server. The ESC completes the credit-card transaction through the secure payment gateway at the time your items are shipped.

How can I tell when my transactions are secure?

Your browser will show you when you are making a secure transaction in two main ways. When you visit www.ECKBooks.org or access a secure form at www.Eckankar.org, "http" in the address bar in your browser will change to "https." Somewhere in your browser window, you will also see a locked-padlock icon. These indicators tell you that all information entered on that page will be encrypted when you submit the form (e.g., by clicking "Submit," "Send," or "Place Order").

Does Eckankar sell or rent my information?

Absolutely not. All information collected will be used only by Eckankar.

Will I receive unsolicited e-mail from Eckankar?

Eckankar does not send unsolicited e-mail.

At www.Eckankar.org, only those who have signed up for e-mail from Eckankar will be sent e-mails from Eckankar.

At www.ECKBooks.org, the e-mail address you provide when you place an order is used only to send your order confirmation and contact you about your order if we have any questions. It will not be used for any other purposes.

Does Eckankar collect information from children?

No, we do not knowingly collect information from visitors age 17 and under.

What about cookies?

In order to add items to your shopping cart and place an order at www.ECKBooks.org, you must have cookies enabled in your browser. Most browsers allow cookies by default, but if you have set yours not to allow cookies, you must either change your browser setting or contact us to place your order by phone, fax, or mail.

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer when you visit a Web site.

A cookie does not identify you personally; it simply identifies your browser. When you return to the site, your browser sends the cookie to the Web server.

A cookie is not harmful to your computer in any way. It cannot be used to spread viruses, nor can it read your hard drive to obtain personal information about you. It is a text file that you can delete at any time.

Cookies help us understand how you are using our Web site. This is purely statistical information and does not track your personal information or your Web usage outside the Eckankar site. This information helps us provide a better experience for all users of our Web site.